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Sexual Assault Awareness Month 2014

Sexual Assault Awareness Month 2014. “Live Our Values: Step Up to Stop Sexual Assault”. Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

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Sexual Assault Awareness Month 2014

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  1. Sexual Assault Awareness Month 2014 “Live Our Values: Step Up to Stop Sexual Assault”

  2. Sexual Assault Awareness Month “This April, the Department observes the tenth Sexual Assault Awareness Month with the theme Live Our Values: Step Up to Stop Sexual Assault. Sexual assault is a crime and can only be stopped when everyone understands we all have a role in combating it.” —Jessica L. Wright Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness

  3. Sexual Assault Awareness Month Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM) is recognized across the country by both civilian and military communities. SAAM offers a unique opportunity to build on existing momentum to fight this crime and ensure all Service Members are treated with dignity and respect.

  4. Sexual Assault Awareness Month SAAM also provides organizations an annual opportunity to highlight Department of Defense (DoD) and Service initiatives addressing sexual assault prevention and response.

  5. DoD Sexual Assault Definition Sexual Assault is defined as: Intentional sexual contact characterized by the use of force, threats, intimidation, or abuse of authority, or when the victim does not or cannot consent. Sexual assault includes a broad category of sexual offenses consisting of the following specific UCMJ offenses: rape, sexual assault, aggravated sexual contact, abusive sexual contact, forcible sodomy, or attempts to commit these offenses. It can occur without regard to the gender, spousal relationship, or age of the victim.

  6. Sexual Assault Awareness Month The 2014 Sexual Assault Awareness Month theme is “Live Our Values: Step Up to Stop Sexual Assault.”

  7. Live Our Values… • Every Service member, at every level in our military, must adhere to and internalize Service values and standards of behavior. • Underpinning our entire program is the need for every Service member—from new recruit to General Officer – to live the core values of our profession: integrity, trust, dignity, respect, fidelity, and courage. • We continue to strive for an environment where professional values, team commitment, and respect define how we treat one another at every command, workplace, and throughout our military community.

  8. Step Up to… • Our entire DoD community has a critical role in preventing and responding to sexual assault and must intervene to reduce risk, stop inappropriate behavior, and report crimes. • Bystander intervention is vital in helping to stop unsafe and criminal behavior. • Service members’ decision to act could prevent sexual assault.

  9. Stop Sexual Assault • Our aim is to reduce, with a goal to eliminate, the crime of sexual assault from the Armed Forces. • In order to prevent sexual assault, every member of the DoD Community must be committed to advancing an environment where sexist behaviors, sexual harassment, and sexual assault are not tolerated, condoned, or ignored. • Sexual assault is not only inappropriate behavior, it is criminal behavior.

  10. About SAPRO Major General Jeffrey J. Snow Director of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office

  11. About SAPRO SAPRO is the DoD’s single point of accountability and oversight for sexual assault policy matters and reports to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness.

  12. About SAPRO SAPRO is committed to the prevention of sexual assault through training and education programs, system accountability, and treatment and support of victims. The DoD requires that medical care and SAPR services for victims are gender-responsive, culturally competent, and recovery-oriented. The DoD has implemented a comprehensive policy to ensure the safety, dignity, and well-being of all Service members.

  13. Support Services DoD Safe Helpline provides confidential, live, one-on-one crisis intervention as part of victim care. Available 24/7, users can click, call, or text to access Safe Helpline services anonymously.

  14. Support Services Safe Helpline is owned by the DoD and operated by the non-profit Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN), the nation's largest anti-sexual violence organization. Safe Helpline staff members have been trained on the unique needs of those living and working in the DoD community, and are knowledgeable about military and civilian resources worldwide.

  15. Support Services Click: Logging on to www.SafeHelpline.org allows users to receive live, one-on-one, confidential help with a trained professional through a secure instant-messaging format. The website also provides vital information about recovering from and reporting sexual assault.

  16. Sexual Assault Support Call: Calling 877-995-5247 allows users to speak with trained Safe Helpline staff for personalized advice and support.

  17. Sexual Assault Support Safe Helpline staff can transfer callers directly to: • Installation-based Sexual Assault Response Coordinators (SARCs) • On-call SAPR Victim Advocates • Civilian rape crisis centers • Military OneSource • National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

  18. Support Services Text: Texting a location or zip code to 55-247 in the U.S. and 202-470-5546 outside the U.S. allows users to receive contact information for the Sexual Assault Response Coordinator, as well as medical, legal, spiritual, and military police personnel.

  19. Sexual Assault Reporting The aim of the DoD is to reduce, with the goal to eliminate, the crime of sexual assault from the Armed Forces. The Department is committed to preventing sexual assault in the military, and, if these crimes do occur, to providing victims the care and support they need to seek justice and heal from these traumatic events.

  20. Sexual Assault Reporting However, our biggest challenge in eliminating sexual assault from the Armed Forces is the underreporting of the crime. This affects the ability to provide care to the victim, as well as hindering the ability to prosecute the offender.

  21. Sexual Assault Reporting Research indicates that when sexual assault victims receive care, system confidence builds, which increases the likelihood victims will report to law enforcement. There are two types of reporting options: Restricted (confidential) and Unrestricted.

  22. Sexual Assault Reporting Victims may report to a law enforcement agency, SARC, Victim Advocate or medical professional. Victims do not need to report to their commander.

  23. Sexual Assault Reporting In situations where a victim wants to participate in the military justice process, a victim makes an Unrestricted Report of sexual assault and both command and law enforcement are notified of the sexual assault.

  24. Sexual Assault Reporting Victims of sexual assault have the option of making a confidentialRestricted Report. Restricted Reports are kept confidential. • Law enforcement is not notified. • The command is not notified with the name of the sexual assault victim. • The commander is given generic information “an assault has occurred”, but no personal identifying information is released.

  25. Sexual Assault Reporting With Restricted (confidential) Reporting a victim can access care and services without participating in the military justice system. A Restricted Report can only be filed with 3 personnel: SARC, SAPR VA, or healthcare personnel. However, when a Service member discloses the matter to anyone other than these three personnel, the information is not protected. The confidante to whom the victim disclosed may in turn report the incident to command and then a Restricted Report might not be possible.

  26. Myths and Facts: Understanding Sexual Assault in the Military

  27. Myths and Facts Myth: The primary victims of sexual assault in the military are women. Fact: While rates of unwanted sexual contact are higher for women than men, surveys estimate that thousands of men are victimized every year; in the DoD, sexual assault is a gender neutral crime.

  28. Myths and Facts Myth: There were 26,000 military women raped in FY12. Fact: The “26,000” estimate reflects not just rape, but all forms of unwanted sexual contact—the survey term for the full range of contact sex crimes between adults that constitute “sexual assault” under military law.

  29. Myths and Facts Myth: Prosecution is the best means of sexual assault prevention. Fact: Research shows many sex offenders choose to believe that their behavior is not criminal or punishable so many offenders are not deterred by the prospect of punishment. Prevention is more likely to be achieved when prosecution and punishment are combined with interventions that interfere with an offenders’ ability to complete a criminal act.

  30. Myths and Facts Myth: If a victim has really been sexually assaulted, he or she should be able to recall the event in great detail. Fact: Research shows that while victims can and do store details about sexual assault in their memories, trauma often interferes with the encoding and recall of those memories. As a result, victims’ recall about an incident may appear disorganized or incomplete, which is incorrectly interpreted as being deceitful. Use of alcohol at the time of the incident increases memory problems.

  31. Myths and Facts Myth: Most sexual assault allegations are false. Fact: The best, scientifically-sound, civilian research shows that between 2 percent to 8 percent of sexual assault allegations turn out to be false— meaning no sexual assault was attempted or completed. This means that there is a 92 percent to 98 percent chance that the victim is telling the truth.

  32. Sexual Assault Awareness Month “We need cultural change where every Service member is treated with dignity and respect, where all allegations of inappropriate behavior are treated with seriousness, where victims’ privacy is protected, where bystanders are motivated to intervene, and where offenders know that they will be held accountable by strong and effective systems of justice.” — Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel

  33. The Sexual Assault Prevention Response Office (SAPRO) and The Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute, April 2014 All photographs are public domain and are from various sources, as cited. Dawn W. Smith, Senior WriterDEOMI Research Directorate

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